In the novel "Grendel" by John Gardner, Grendel, the main character, is a vivacious creature in the beginning of the book. He has fun, experiences the world, explores new areas, and has an overall optimistic point of view on life. This mindset changes significantly to a pessimistic view on life immediately after he has his encounter with the Dragon. In the end, the DragonÃÂs bleak view of existence directly causes GrendelÃÂs demise.

The day previous to GrendelÃÂs meeting with the Dragon, he entered the DaneÃÂs mead hall asking for mercy, begging for peace, wanting to become their friend. He was rejected by them and almost killed. From that moment, he resolved to never go back to them and terrorize them. When Grendel met with the omniscient Dragon, he listened to a speech is like one he has never heard before. The Dragon talked about the future, the past and the present.

The Old English epic poem Beowulf is written in al...

An illustration of Grendel by J.R. Skelton from St...

Beowulf & Grendel

He talked about how no matter what you do, whether it is save the world, or kill the Danes, in the end, it is all irrelevant. All events lead to one ultimate ending, Armageddon. This is what gave Grendel the gloomy view on life. He was convinces that everything that happened did not matter and that life was pointless. This thinking made him retract his vow to not terrorize the Danes. It was because of this decision that Beowulf came. It was because of this decision that Grendel fell.

Grendel has now chosen to torture the Danes as his ÃÂirrelevancyÃÂ. He frequents going next to the mead hall and listening in to the Shaper singing. It was on one such night that a guard snuck up on him from behind and attacked him. Grendel dodged the sword, once, twice, but was finally...

Citation styles:

"Grendel" by John Gardner - Dragon's alteration to view on life. (2007, March 11). In WriteWork.com. Retrieved 17:24, December 09, 2016, from http://www.writework.com/essay/grendel-john-gardner-dragon-s-alteration-view-life

More North American essays:

... . It has been acknowledged by critics þ almost unanimously þ that much of his thematic material reflects the man himself as, in my view, do his novels and short ... the warmth and life-giving quality of the sun to spring these creatures to life. One grasshopper slowly works its way out of the bottle ...

... expressed in many ways.. MURDER being one of them. In Sweeney Todd, written by Stephen Sondheim, a barber escapes from a place where he was wrongly jailed by a judge; a judge who locked him up simply to have his wife. The ...

... the family name by the printer who set up William's first book, The Marble Faun) ran a livery stable and a hardware store. Later he became business manager of the University. Maud Butler was his mother and Murray, John, and Dean ...

... , ballet dancer, and painter. Though every one of these qualities were contributions to her vivid personality, her flaws were seen by many! 'Her rudeness, selfishness and lack of self restraint! She abuses men terribly then cuts and breaks dates with them ...

... stated : 'One cannot refrain from regret that so beautiful a style and so much refinement of taste have been spent by Miss Chopin on an essentially vulgar story.'( ? ). Most critics and readers of that era felt the same way as this ...

2 pages195Feb/19973.4

Students & Profs. say about us:

"Good news: you can turn to other's writing help. WriteWork has over 100,000 sample papers"